My shoulders don't feel 'balanced'..

Factual Questions
1

Hi all,

I have had a physiological problem with my soldiers for some time now, but up until this point it has been quite manageable. Now, it is becoming increasingly uncomfortable. It’s difficult to explain what is wrong, but here goes…

My shoulders do not feel ‘balanced’ when I am standing upright. I am constantly having to jerk my head from side to side and lift my shoulders up to try and make them feel ‘more comfortable’. Something in the area, it feels, is just not sitting right. While it causes me absolutely no pain whatsoever, it does cause me quite a high level of discomfort.

What could it be?

Two things that I should point out is that when I turn my head 90 degrees to the right, my left shoulder (involuntarily) lifts up about half an inch. When I turn my head 90 degrees to the left, however, no such movement of my right shoulder occurs. Also, if I hold my arms out in front of me, clasp my hands together, and then, pull back with my left arm and push forwards with my right arm (to create tension) my left shoulder blade sticks out way, way further than it should. When I do the same thing to my other shoulder blade, it barely sticks out at all.

I hope I have provided enough information here for someone with good knowledge of this region of the body to theorise what could be wrong?

2

IANAD, but maybe scoliosis (sp?)? My brother (who has minor scoliosis) went to West Point and used to get razzed repeatedly that he couldn’t stand straight at attention. One day his company captain was in his room and saw a picture of our family. “Dammit [racekarl’s brother], your whole damn family is crooked!” After that, he didn’t get harrassed any more :wink:

3

IANACOAD, but I have dislocated my shoulder and I still tend to favour it and lean into that side when I sit. Any injuries?

And don’t worry, someone in the Med Field will be along fairly soon.

4

Hi Beastal. Have you ever had an injury to your shoulder, collarbone, neck, upper arm, shoulderblade or back? These areas are all affected by injuries to the brachial plexus, and because the nerves run throughout an injury in any one of these areas can cause the types of problems you are relating.

I suffered an injury to my shoulder many years ago when I broke my collarbone. As a result I have damage to my thoracic nerve and scapular winging. It sounds to me like your problems are exactly like mine.

Also, as racekarl suggested scoliosis may be a cause to look into. I have scoliosis, and it definitely contributes to the off-balance feeling.

The fact that you indicated that your shoulderblade sticks out is the main indicator of thoracic nerve damage, which can have numerous side effects. Does your shoulderblade cause you any pain? If the scapula does not ride smoothly across the muscles of your back you can also develop bursitis, which is quite painful. Does it limit your range of motion other than turning your head?

There aren’t many treatments for this type of damage other than PT, unless the condition is severe enough to warrant surgery (which is not incredibly often and not really preferable either).

IANAD, but I have done a lot of research relating to my own problems and consulted my doctors about it. I have found a lot of information that you may find useful:

Shoulder1: lots of information on all sorts of shoulder injuries and treatments

HealthCyclopedia entry on Winged Scapula: offers links to many different resources on scapular winging and neuropathies

Winged Scapula: This is an MSN community for people with winged scapulas. There’s a lot of good information to be found here.

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome: This has some information on a disorder caused by thoracic nerve damage

Brachial plexus injuries: some general information on brachial plexus injuries

If you’d like more information or have any questions, feel free to e-mail me. My address is in my profile.

5

Beastal, Jetgirl, What about an Atlas that is out of alignment?

I go to a NUCCA-certified chiropractor, who can tell by measuring the tilt (balance) of my shoulders and/or the “levelness” of my feet (when lying down) if my Atlas is out. The theory is that if your Atlas is out of alighnment (the Atlas being the first vertibrae at the top of your spine) then it throws off the alignment of the whole spine. And in a lot of cases this shows up as un-balanced shoulders.

I’d suggest looking for a NUCCA-certified chiropractor in your area.

Good luck.

6

That may be true as well, Rob. I go to a chiropractor also, and that is something he has mentioned to me.

The one clue that really stood out to me was the winging of the scapula that he mentioned. Scapular winging is most evident when putting tension on the muscles that control it. Most ‘tests’ for scapular winging will have the patient stand close to a wall and then use their arms to push away, like doing a standing push-up. In people with scapular winging, the muscles that hold the scapula to the body are damaged or the nerves that input these muscles are damaged, so when tension is put on the shoulders and muscles the scapula flies away from the body.

Examples of scapular winging can be found here and here. The first picture is of a mild case of winging (if you can’t tell, the scapula on the left side of the picture is the one in question) and the second picture is a case of severe winging.

My entire left shoulder is out of balance because of a clavicle fracture I suffered years ago. The bone broke and almost protruded out of the skin. It healed malrotated, and had to be re-broken a few times. The bone healed malrotated, but at a much smaller angle. My left clavicle is now noticably shorter than my right clavicle and has a tendency to pull in my shoulder towards my body. My posture is out of alignment, and sometimes I have to kind of work my arm in a circle to get it ‘hitched’ back right.

I have to be careful what I lift, too. If I lift something too heavy (more than about 10lbs) or go out of my range of motion I get a hot sharp burning pain in my scapula that feels like a hot poker. I’m very lucky though, as most people who suffer scapular winging have less range of motion than I do and a lot of pain.

Beastal, it definitely sounds like we have something in common, but I would check with your physician, orthopedic surgeon or maybe even consult a chiropractor.

Hope you get the information you need, and definitely check into it!

7

Scapular winging… hmmm…

I checked those photos in those links, XJETGIRLX, the pic in the second link looks similar to how my shoulder blade does when I put tension on it, although I believe mine still sticks out markedly further.

Also, when I stand up straight and look in the mirror, my right shoulder sits lower than my left shoulder. But all of this I can live with… it’s just the uncomfortable feeling of ‘unbalancedness’ when I am standing upright that is hard to deal with. And no, it causes me absolutely no pain whatsoever. I’m going to check out some of the other links you provided.

racekarl, definitely not scoliosis. I have visited a chiropractor before in regards to some lower back pain I used to have, and he X-Rayed my torso revealing a straight spine, but one shoulder (my right) sitting lower than my left. He recommended putting a ‘build up’ in my left shoe. This appeared to cause some improvement, but it could possibly have just been the placebo effect.